Analysis of "Semimaru" An Opera

36 Pages·1982·1.15 MB·English

by  Marshall Tuttle

ANALYSIS OF "SEMIMARU"
AN OPERA
A Thesis Presented to the Graduate Faculty
of
California State University, Hayward
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts in Music
By
Marshall A. Tuttle
August, 1982
ANALYSIS OF "SEMIMARU”
AN OPERA
By
Marshall A. Tuttle
Date
/J )9SZ
iii
This work is dedicated to the memory of Miss
Rudolphine Radil» a profound artist and a great
and generous human being.
iv
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank those private teachers who gen­
erously furthered my musical development, Mrs. Yaada Webeh,
Mrs. Phyllis Luckmah, Mr. Anner Bylsma', and Miss Rudolphine
Radii. Most importantly I would like to thank Mr. William
Petersen for his unflagging faith in my abilities, his gen­
erous dedicatiori, and his strong will to perpetuate his art.
Special credit is due to Mr. Kenneth Sequeira for initiating
and fostering this insanity. I would like to thank Profes­
sor Dr. G. Glasow for having the courage to tolerate an
obvious maniac, Professor F. Larocca for many extremely
intelligent and thought provoking commenti^, and Mr. A.
Gnazzo for his expert technical assistance. I would like to
acknowledge CSUH as an excellent place to do music. I will
genuinely miss the many friends and vital personalities who
made the past year a pleasure and a revelation for me. I am
indebted to Mr. R. Sender for technical assistance in the
preparation of this mansucript.
V
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION ................................. 1
II. THE MUSICAL VOCABULARY ............................... 1
A) Scale ............................................... 1
B) Non Scale Tones .................................... 2
C) Harmony ............................................. 3
1. Available Chords .............................. 3
’ 2. Sonority ...................................... 4
3. Chord Successions .......................... 5
D) Rhythm .............................................. 6
E) Summary ............................................. 8
III. LIBRETTO ............................................... 9
IV. MUSIC ................................................. 14
V. CONCLUSION ........................................... 17
APPENDIX I. LIBRETTO ..................................... 19
APPENDIX II. PERFORMING INSTRUCTIONS ..................... 27
1
I. INTRODUCTION
The opera Semlmaru represents a step in the process of
developing a new more flexible musical vocabulary and syn­
tax. The specific goals of this system are: a) to allow a
wider range of consonance and dissonance', b) to allow inclu­
sion in a unified structure of all conceivable compositional
processed, and c) to generate a technique and associated
expressive vocabulary which will allow for a simplification
of the compositional procesi^, and for a more immediate and
direct comprehensibility of musical thought.
This work was begun in earlier songs (1978-1980) and
continued in String Quartet (1981). It will be carried on
in subsequent compositions. Accordingly, a large part of
this paper will deal with the pre-compositional assumptions
of the system as a whole', since it would be impossible to
discuss such a large work in detail.
II. THE MUSICAL VOCABULARY
A) Scale
The melodic material is based on a six-tone scale
obtained by combining two augmented triads a half tone apart
(See Ex. 1). There are four such scales.
Example 1. The scale
2
1
ture of Atonal Music by Forte. This scale is a symmetrical
scale, and implies no ji priori hierarchical pitch relations.
In addition it is devoid of major seconds and tritones.
Melodic material is derived from this scale (Ex. 2).
Example 2. Two motivic fragments based on scale tones^
Though these short examples might easily be explained
in terms of traditional tonal harmony, the consistent use of
this material in both the melodic and harmonic dimensions
creates a context in which traditional harmonic analysis is
clearly irrelevant.
B) Non Scale Tones
The concepts of passing tone', suspensiori, etc., are all
generalized. Any of these theoretical dissonances may
resolve by a leap of any dimension or with any number of
pitches inserted between the non-scale pitch and its pitch
of resolution, so long as the line ultimately comes to rest
on an appropriate scale pitch. It must be noted here that
we are not discussing non-chord tone;^, rather tones which
occur outside a given scale. An example in tonal music
1
The Structure of Atonal Music by Allen Forte. Yale
University Press. New Haven and London’, 1973. p.
180
3
would be the occurrence of ^-sharp in the key of major.
These pitches are inherently dissonant in context and
require resolution of some sort. A scale may change before
a given note achieves resolutiorf, creating a situation where
the note of resolution appears as a dissonance.
Clearly these rules are sufficiently general to allow
the analysis of anything in terms of this system. (See Exam­
ple 3, where non-scale tones are marked with *.). Ulti­
mately, though, theory is of little value as a descriptive
tool,^ and is mainly valuable for its powers of suggestion.
Example 3. A well known theme with non-scale
tones according to the present definition marked
by *. Note that according to our analysis, b is a
consonant pitch.
Any application of these ideas to previous music such as
shown in Example 3, would be as irrelevant as application of
twelve tone rows in Mozart.
C) Harmony
1. Available chords
Each scale has 20 three and four note chords which can
be fabricated from the pitches of the scale; three each of
A thorough exposition of the absolute limitations of
theory is given in CodeI, Escher, Bach: an Eternal
Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter. Random
House', New York, I960.
major and minor triads, three each of major; minor and aug­
mented triads with added major sevenths; two augmented
chords; and three major-minor chords. These are all con­
sidered to be equally consonant.
With the exception of one augmented chord, all chords
are based on the pitches of the upper of the two augmented
chords used to generate the scale (In Example 1 this would
be the pitches c-e-a flat). Therefore', harmonically these
pitches are more important that the pitches of the lower
chord (b-d-sharp-g in Ex. 1).
While there are fifths in the scale’, there are no fifth
related harmonies. In this respect this scale differs fun­
damentally from the traditional scale. If a pitch is chosen
to be a central pitch, its central position must be defined
by means other than harmonic or linear progression, since
all harmonic relations contained in this scale are symmetri­
cal .
2. Sonority
One characteristic of this scale is the ability to
access its entire pitch content while maintaining a constant
sonority. This has been exploited earlier in the songs Mis­
ter (1979) and Is ^ Soup Yet? (1980). It is carried
further here. In Semimarii, howeveh, the melodic line may
detach itself from the implications of the fixed harmonic
sonority according to the liberal rules concerning non-chord
tones mentioned earlier. Thus harmony and melody can be
heard to function independently of one another.
5
‘3. Chord successions
Chords may relate in any order within a scale', or they
may change scales in order to highlight a melodic pitch by
placing it in an altered relation to its harmonization.
An additional process for harmonic succession is sug­
gested by the psychophysical phenomenon of difference tones.
According to theory any chord has an associated set of
difference tones which therefore stands in some relation to
the original chord. This relation has been exploited in my
earlier works Misteh, String Quartet, and is theorized to
have been used in Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal by
3
Wagner .
Through the process of following any given chord by a
chord based on the pitch classes of its difference tones any
local relation to a scale can be destroyed and a new scale
can be articulated as an endpoint of the process governing a
new period of music - a process analogous to modulation.
Furthermore', through this process harmony can be rendered
independent of melodic considerations and define its own
direction.
According to this use of difference tones a different
theory of chord stability arises. In this system the chord
shown in Example 4a is stable', while those shown in Examples
4b (a simple minor chord) and 4c (a chord made up of the
3
Difference Tones and the History of Music and ^
Analysis of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde Based on
Difference Tones, by M. Tuttle (1981) submitted to
Music Perception.